| Study looks at optimizing pharmaceutical use in Manitoba |
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The Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) recently released a study entitled "Toward Optimization: Prescribing and Guidelines in Manitoba", which looks at the actual prescribing of pharmaceuticals in Manitoba,from certain categories, and compares it with official guidelines for their use.
While the study founnd that, in general, medications were being prescribed in line with guidelines, there were some issues. In terms of treatment of patients with asthma, the recommended approach of initially treating with corticosteroids alone prior to using other types of inhalers is actually in decline. They also found that guidelines were less likely to be followed by General Practitioners as well as with patients with more mild symptoms. The other important area where there were significant variations from the guidelines was in prescribing antipsychotics to patients over 65. While the guidelines recommend against the use of "atypical"antipsychotics in older people, use in personal care homes has increased dramatically, from approximately one-in-fifty to one in four. You can download a copy of a summary or the full report here:Toward Optimization: Prescribing and Guidelines in Manitoba |
